Five months after taking office, President Ma Ying-jeou and his wife Chow Mei-ching finally moved into the president's official residence in downtown Taipei Sunday.

The move began early Sunday and it took one big lorry and two medium vans to carry the first family's belongings from Ma's private home in JingMei District to his new residence in ZhongZheng District, both in Taipei City.

A crew member of the moving company told a local TV station that he was really surprised when he knocked on the door of the customer and found the president opened the door and handed him a carton full of the first family's belongings.

The first lady who packed all the cartons was waiting at the new residence which has been given a new code-name of ZhongXing Apartment deriving from the name of the ZhongZheng District where the residence located and the name of the XingLong Road on which the president's private house is located.

Ma who resumed his post as head of state on May 20 had to wait for five months before moving into the official residence because of the construction of the residence's sewage system, an aide to the president said.

Unlike its predecessors in the residence, the first family which consists of the president, his wife and a dog would not hire any cook.

The aide explained that Ma rarely eats at home because of his busy schedule and the first lady prefers to cook by herself unless there are guests at home when she would order foods from caterers.